How to Participate: Read books by women horror authors based on the prompts, talk about those books wherever you can using the #LOHFReadathon hashtag (and, of course, review the books if possible).

Prompts:

Indie Author

Author of Color

LGBTQ+ Author

Written Before You Were Born

Something Short

What to Read: Horror written by women!

Recently we released a graphic showing our choices for the readathon. Not every one of us is reading all these books! This is a combined list of our choices. I’ve written out all of our choices below to make it easier for those using assistive devices.

Please note: lots of people have come forth with some incredible lists, so please don’t feel like you have just our choices to pick from if you’re trying to come up with books to read for this!

Indie Author

Black Wings – Megan Hart (out 2/14)

Cruel Works of Nature – Gemma Amor

Daymares – Kenya Moss-Dyme

Echo Lake – Letitia Trent

Fountain Dead – Theresa Braun

The Haunting of Henderson Close – Catherine Cavendish

Without Condition – Sonora Taylor (out 2/12)

Author of Color

Beloved – Toni Morrison

The Between – Tananarive Due (also our group read for this month!)

The Gilda Stories – Jewelle Gomez

The Good House – Tananarive Due

How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend – Linda Addison

Let’s Play White – Chesya Burk

Shutter – Courtney Alameda

LGBTQ+ Author

Bittersweet Symphony – Rebecca McNutt

City of Ghosts – VE Schwab

The Gilda Stories – Jewelle Gomez

Hammers on Bone – Cassandra Khaw

The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters

The Red Tree – Caitlin R. Kiernan

Say Her Name – Juno Dawn

Before You Were Born

The Auctioneer – Joan Samson

Beloved – Toni Morrison

The Birds and Other Stories – Daphne du Maurier

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

The House Next Door – Anne Rivers Siddons

Somebody Come and Play – Clare McNally

The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Something Short

Apart in the Dark – Ania Ahlborn

Baby Hater – CV Hunt

Being Full of Light, Insubstantial – Linda Addison

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend – Linda Addison

Hammers on Bone – Cassandra Khaw

Let’s Play White – Chesya Burke

For the curious, here is a list that Emily made up that several of us picked books from because she’s good at doing this type of thing and saved us all some trouble. Please note, this is not a comprehensive list. It is, however, a good place to start if you are completely lost.

Indie Author

Cruel Works of Nature – Gemma Amor

Fountain Dead – Theresa Braun

Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked – Christa Carmen

Maria The Wanted – V. Castro

The Carrow Haunt – Darcy Coates

Everything That’s Underneath – Kristi DeMeester

The Rust Maidens – Gwendolyn Kiste

The Making of Gabriel Davenport – Beverly Lee

Church – Renee Miller

Daymares – Kenya Moss-Dyme

The Bone Weaver’s Orchard – Sarah Read (Out 2/1)

Love for Slaughter – Sara Tantlinger

Author of Color

Shutter – Courtney Alameda

The Jumbies – Tracey Baptiste

My Sister the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite

Sycorax’s Daughters – edited by Kinitra Brooks, PHD

Cartoons in the Suicide Forest – Leza Cantoral

The Between – Tananarive Due

Things We Lost in the Fire- Mariana Enriquez

Her Body and Other Parties – Carmen Maria Machado

Body – Asa Nonami

White is for WItching – Helen Oyeyemi

The Hole – Hye-young Pyun

Black Magic Women – edited by Sumiko Saulson

LGBTQ+ Author

Fist of the Spider Women: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire – edited by Amber Dawn

Say Her Name – Juno Dawson

F4 – Larissa Glasser

The Gilda Stories – Jewelle Gomez

Hammers on Bone – Cassandra Khaw

The Red Tree – Caitlin R. Kiernan

Bittersweet Symphony – Rebecca McNuitt

The Lights – Carrie Pack

Broken Mirror and Other Morbid Tales – Carmilla Voiez

Affinity – Sarah Waters

The Daylight Gate – Jeanette Winterson

A Book Published Before You Were Born

The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter

The Birds and Other Stories – Daphne Du Maurier

Gothic Tales – Elizabeth Gaskell

The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

The Graveyard Apartment – Mariko Koike

Interview with a Vampire – Anne Rice

Weird Stories – Charlotte Riddell

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

The House Next Door – Anne Rivers Siddons

The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton – Edith Wharton

Something Short

How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend – Linda Addison

I Call Upon Thee – Ania Ahlborn (available in Apart in the Dark pb, or single e-book/audiobook)

Come Closer – Sara Gran

I Am Not Your Final Girl – Claire C. Holland

Cockblock – CV Hunt

We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson

Pretty Marys All in a Row – Gwendolyn Kiste

Return to Dyatlov Pass – JH Moncrieff

The Silent Companions – Laura Purcell

Like Jagged Teeth – Betty Rocksteady

Fortune Box – Madeleine Swann

The Devil’s Dreamland – Sara Tantlinger

This is not a reading list but a list of books that we would recommend. If you know of a book that would qualify, please add it in the comments below! (Please make sure you specify the category(ies) it would fall under!)

You are welcome to read with us even if you aren’t doing the prompts. The idea is to get you to read more women horror writers.